Technical Field
The present principles relate to wearable sensors. More particularly, it relates to a method of universal attachment of a wearable sensor to articles of clothing worn around the subject's body in order to measure body movement, motion and activity level by such a sensor or plurality of sensors. The invention also relates to a method of detecting the attachment of wearable sensor to clothing.
Related Art
Previous known approaches in the area of medical portable devices addressed the problem of measuring health status of adults through the use of restrictive and intrusive attachments of devices, fixed to body via tight straps and adhesive materials that are not applicable for infant and newborn care, as they restrict blood flow and irritate the fragile skin of subjects. Existing approaches presume that the signal coming of the sensor is reliable and do not deal with a method of improving the signal strength by finding the best position of the sensor.
An invention described in this art introduces a novel design for universal attachment of a non-restrictive wearable sensor to any article of clothing in a position best suited for measurement of vital health signals, such as but not limited to body movements, sound, light, pressure, proximity, conductance, activity levels, heart rate, blood oxygen level and temperature. The sensor unit is worn on clothing without restricting the blood flow through the extremities of the subject.
Existing approaches require a specific static placement of wearable sensors, such as into pockets or on wristbands, or special clothing with embedded sensors. Existing approaches also do not ensure safeguards against incorrect placement. Incorrect placement of the sensor will result in false alarms or aberrant measurements. Some embodiments of invention described here include a method for detection if the sensor is attached to the clothing in a secure manner and ready for operation or if it is detached, thus providing some safeguards against incorrect attachment and minimizing amount of false alarms.                Methods and devices for clothing detection about a wearable electronic device—U.S. Pat. No. 8,541,745 B2. This publication is materially and significantly different from the art described in this invention, as it deals with the devices worn in pockets and around wristbands and do not address universal placement of a sensor anywhere on article of clothing, nor with detection of such attachment.        Wearable electronic system—WO2009148595 A2. This art is sufficiently different from the art of this invention, as it focuses on plurality of wearable components into a single assembly.        Wearable system for monitoring parameters of four vital signs of human bodies in real time—CN102018504 B. This art is sufficiently different from this invention, as it describes placement of sensors on a wristwatch, a belt and on specific places on clothing.        